In Spain we have been critical of public and private health for years because of the high rates of caesarean sections, which have been around 23% of births for the first and 40% for the second. Year after year, with the new protocols, the situation has been improving and these rates have been declining to get a little closer to the figures suggested by WHO, considering a 15% caesarean section acceptable.
In ItalyInstead, instead of moving forward, they go backwards, like crabs, because it has become the country of Europe with the highest percentage of caesarean sections: almost four out of ten women who are going to give birth (38.2%) end up giving birth by caesarean section.
These figures are an average of what happens throughout the country, but we already know that an average can hide shameful situations, as it happens in the south of the country, where in regions like Calabria there are more women who stop by caesarean section (61, 6%) than those that give birth vaginally, or as Sicily, where they are 52.8%.
The most striking case is that of the private clinic "Villa Serenae Nuova San Francesco", where the cesarean section rate is 95.45%, which comes to show that there women go only and exclusively "to get the child out of me", the wrong thing (would have explanation) or the good thing (the explanation is that it is a private clinic and "who pays, sends "). The remaining 4.65% imagine that they are women who go there to have a C-section and for some human error (probably because doctors do not arrive on time) the child is born hopelessly before being able to do the C-section (I say, it is my theory)
The reason seems economic
Surely you will be wondering what is the reason that caesarean sections in Italy are so high, especially considering that in 1980 only 11% of women did not give birth vaginally.
The Minister of Health, Renato Balduzzi, is already studying the issue because it is suspected that after so much caesarean section there is a general economic interest on the part of the hospitals.
A normal delivery costs the state between 1,200 and 2,000 euros. For a C-section, which is already considered a surgical intervention, you pay between 1,600 and 2,700 euros. The difference is not much, but it is large enough that there are centers capable of having few views when choosing how some women should give birth.
The Carabinieri come into action
Look that Spain is a country that sometimes causes surreal situations (you know: "Spain, a tambourine country"), but in this Italy takes the palm (of gold). When economic interests are suspected carabinieri (a security body of the Italian State) were a few days ago in several hospitals and clinics in the country to seize reports, analysis, ultrasound, etc. in order to determine to what extent a caesarean section is necessary or when they are being practiced without being indicated.
And epidural anesthesia?
It is also suspected, or it is thought, that many of the C-sections are practiced because many women press for it. In Italy The use of epidural anesthesia is very limited, so much so that only 16% of hospitals use it. The reason seems to be religious (I say it seems to be because it is not said openly), because the Vatican seems determined to keep women from giving birth in pain (one thing is for a woman to freely decide to use epidural or reject it and another very different is that there is no possibility to choose).
The harmed in the end are women and their babies
Whatever the cause, it is an economic question of the hospitals that, in the face of the global economic crisis, have chosen to obtain money as it is, being the caesarean sections a good way to increase income or be a religious question, because to give birth you have to continue the mandates of a book that is thousands of years old, the harmed in the end are the weakest: the mother who sees a surgical intervention with more risks and worse recovery than a normal delivery and babies, who also have more risks of having problems if they are born by caesarean section.
Those above, those who rule, who fight if they want, but do not use users, and less mothers and their babies as a method to get money or to reaffirm obsolete beliefs.
